Saturday, February 27, 2010

A Blog?

I wonder if blogging really the best way to go about this . . . I think that some kind of "interactive, public document of my developing thoughts on skills acquisition, pedagogy, and practice" is a very good idea. (I might think it were a great idea if I had some readers and some people with whom to interact.) But the format of a blog (with its largely--if not entirely--chronological interface) just doesn't facilitate the kind of manipulation of data that I think would be most effective for stimulating discussion and innovative, problem-solving ideas.

As an example: from the last post until now (and I still have 30 min. left in the session for today), I've realized that one thing I want to do is develop a few lists from which, say, some keywords could be derived (cf. olympic skiers) so that I can get to where I am now in the session* faster, and so that I can generally waste less practice time. *(You see . . . despite what I wrote in the last post, I now feel very "warmed-up." I've stopped [or maybe, relaxed] concentrating so much on memorizing vocabulary and instead, am paying closer attention to form and generally just moving across the keyboard more slowly. As a result, I feel that the last hour and a half was more productive than the first two hours.) Two lists in particular I'd like to see (and have accessible, not chronologically, but in some other, more spatially interactive way) are:

1. Xylophone Skills

a. imagining a melody and choosing the keys that correspond (relative to position)
b. parallel octave jumping in singles, doubles, triples, etc.
c. rolls
d. 4s and 5s
e. left/right independence
f. on the fly cross rhythm and polymeter creation
g. recalling & reproducing memorized patterns

2. Keywords for Form (cf. Feldenkrais Awareness)

a. relaxed. no tension.
b. wrists straight. wrist snap.
c. thumb position. thumb snap.
d. middle finger second digit, pinch to thumb.
e. shape of bend of support fingers.
f. elbows.

These lists are obviously incomplete, and I'd like to continue to add to them, refine them, but again, because the format of the blog is chronological, what am I going to do, hunt through all the previous posts to find each time I mention new thought/idea "x" so that I can add it to category/configuation "y"?

I think some parts of the blog format are really good. (It IS useful to be able to access this information chronologically if that's what's called for in a given situation, and I like the idea of adding a video component, for example, but there need to be other options as well, as in the case of the specific situation I just described.) Or as in this other example:

I came up with the idea about a half an hour ago to follow a pattern of waking up early and beating the crowds to the practice rooms so that I can use the mirrors in the big room (and so, get visual feedback on some of the form keywords I just listed.) Well, good. Now I've blogged that idea. There it is. The idea is written down. Which is good because I'm so busy, I may not have a chance to implement that (or some other) idea for a few days. But how likely is it that I'll remember in a few days that I even had that idea? And what if a few days becomes a few months? Unless the blog allows me (and others) to access (and reorganize) such ideas in a convenient way, what's the point of writing them down at all?

3 comments:

Steve said...

Hi Todd,
Regarding the chronological form of the blog and ways to locate your ideas, you might consider putting searchable tags into the text whenever you write about something that you think you may want to find again.
Some tags for example might be _tag_skills, _tag_rolls, _tag_polymeter, _tag_grip
You could type these into the blog next to any related text.
Later when you want to find anything you've written about hand position or grip, go to the top-level of your blog where it shows all posts, and do a text search on _tag_grip.
And if you can't remember if the tag was _tag_grip, or _tag_hand or something else, you can search on _tag_ to see all tags.
As an example, in your last paragraph of this post, you might add several tags such as _tag_practice, _tag_position, _tag_elbows.
-Steve

Todd G. Martin said...

Thanks very much, Steve! I'll definitely look into that.

Todd G. Martin said...

Hi again Steve, I've added labels and I think they're great. Thanks again for the suggestion!